50 Amazing Hours

For my service hours I chose to do some construction work. Basically what I did was help build 2 brick sections in front of a building. The sections were approximately 1-2 feet wide and 13-14 feet tall. Here is the process of laying brick; take old brick to the scrapyard,, carry new bricks from my car to the space we were working at, clean the brick, and sweep the street: I didn't do the job completely alone because my dad was there and he mentored me along the way because he is a very skilled brick layer. My service hour sponsor was Connor Creevy an he was the one that supervised the job and eventually signed off on my hours. I wanted to do this for my service specifically because I like to work with my hands and I've always wanted to try construction. This is definitely something I can see myself doing in the future.

BKJ, Service Project, (2016)

Picture this!!

This project is for my steam course called systems and models. The purpose of this project was to create a self portrait and also explain the psychological test we took throughout the unit. I am very proud of the image I drew because I didn't take the project so literally I drew something I felt symbolized the true me. I really likes all of the test we took because it gave me a new perspective of me. I also liked the way the Action Project has art in it.



Title: The Alter Ego
Medium: Acrylic paint on a mirror
Size:11” tall 15” wide

The test that most influenced my art piece was the Myers Briggs 16 personality test. This test helped me because the test basically tells you who you are in every aspect. Another reason I chose this test is because it was the only one that I felt was spot on and defined me the best. When I took the test, I scored as an ENFP, which means that I am Extroverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving - basically I am a free spirit that is often the life of the party, energetic and compassionate.

We took the Enneagram Test which measures motivation. I did not strongly align with any particular result, although the two that came up for me were the 4 and the 6. A 4 is motivated by emotions and a 6 is motivated by self-preservation. Examples of well-known 4s are Frida Kahlo, Kat Von D and Bob Dylan. Examples of well-known 6s are Sigmund Freud (who we studied in class), Ellen Degeneres and Malcolm X. Neither fully felt right because I felt that I was pulled towards many different numbers when taking this test and for me it was very hard to decide between them all.

Another test we took is the DiSC which measures how you work in a job setting. I scored highly for Dominance, which means that when I work, I like to be a leader. One day in class we did a team building exercise and we had to get a basket from an enclosed space without touching the ground. Immediately I jumped in and started playing a leadership role by trying to facilitate what was going on.

The last test we took in class is the TKI which measures how you deal with conflict. My strongest strategies for conflict are Competition and Compromise. I scored the lowest on Avoider. Since I scored the highest on competition and compromise I am most likely to either argue with you and try to get my point across or compromise and try to find something that works the best. I had a 1 in avoider which basically means that I am never the type that shies away from conflict I am the type that deals with it head on.

We participated in an experiment called the Marshmallow Test. The marshmallow test basically measures someone's self control by placing a marshmallow in front of them and telling them they can either eat it now or wait 15 minutes and get another marshmallow. I chose not to eat the marshmallow, and I think this demonstrates my self control and I feel that it also showed me that having ADHD can actually be a good thing sometimes because I was able to distract myself naturally because I can never focus on one thing for too long so after a while I just forgot about the marshmallow.

There was an experiment that took place in 1971 where a group of researchers took students from Stanford and gave them roles to play in this experiment. Some of the students were guards and some of the students were playing the role of prisoners. This quickly went bad because The students that were guards took their job way too serious and began to physically and emotionally abuse the prisoners and instead of stopping it when it started the researchers just sat back to see how the whole thing would play out. If I were in the experiment, I think that I would be very neutral because I usually like to treat people equally.

BKJ, "The World" (2016)

For my art piece I wanted to do something symbolic as opposed to just doing a realistic self portrait. When I first started off I had the idea to just draw everything I like and I feel defines me on a piece of paper and have that be my art piece. Then I thought a bit deeper and decided to do graffiti on a mirror and then take a picture with the graffiti covering my face to symbolize my alter ego as a graffiti writer. Although the mirror with the graffiti on it is art, it is not my final self portrait. My self portrait is a picture of me taken from the perspective of someone else to show how the world sees me. Next to that picture is another taken from my perspective showing how I see myself. When people see this art piece I want them to realize that sometimes people are not always how they seem on the surface.

BKJ, "My True Self" (2016)

Graffiti In Yo Hood

This project is for my Digital Media class. The purpose of this project was to make a fake project to prove that we could do a proper blog. I chose to do my project on graffiti because it is something I love. I didn't really learn anything during this project because I am already experienced in graffiti. I am proud of my ability to do graffiti.

C, Duncan. "Saint Graffiti." Flickr. Yahoo!, 12 Mar. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.

Stay Organized!!!

This project is for my math and art class called Rapid Prototyping. The purpose of the project was to make something for the new space that will benefit the school or anyone. I learned a lot about tools and how repurposing can be a great thing. I really love the way my pencil box came out and I honestly want to make one for myself now. Another thing I really liked was being able to go to the Wasteshed and be able to purchase a lot of cool things for myself and my project.

The project I made was a wooden pencil box. It can be used to store various materials in the different compartments, and it is a reasonable size so storage will not be a big problem.

Here is a link to my Instructable page.

To do my time lapse video I used the iPhone time lapse feature which take 15 seconds of real footage and condenses it to one second of time lapse footage.

Eleanor from the Wasteshed told me some inspiring things such as:

• Reusing is such a beautiful thing because you are not only giving back to the world but you are also giving back to the people because one man's trash is another man's treasure.
• It’s nice to see people find purpose for things that were unwanted by others.

What I took from the things she said was that we should not throw out what we cannot find purpose for because there will always be someone else that will want it and can actually find purpose for it. The main thing I took away from the short talk was that I should save materials so that I could possibly make something better out of them. Most of the materials that I used for the box were leftover wood from my house and nails that my dad already had that he doesn't use. So now I have a very useful box that is made with materials that were just collecting dust.

I was also inspired by the Lapicientos, pencil holder, which is basically a pencil holder made out of pencils. It is a beautiful design and is very functional. I was also inspired by myself because I am an artist and I have hundreds of pencils, markers, pens, etc. and I always have difficulty finding a place to put all of my supplies.

BKJ, Wooden box (2016)

My machine used torque when I was drilling holes in my wooden box. The way it uses torque is that it essentially uses force to spin the drill bit into the wood. This made the job a lot easier because I was using oak wood so it will be almost impossible to screw something in by hand because the wood is very strong. I feel that I used the best drill bit for the job because I tried a different bit later in the process that was meant for metal and it made the job more difficult.

When talking about safety there are a lot of red flags that come up in my project. I used a hack saw when cutting some of my wood and later switched to a table saw which are both are very dangerous. When working with these tools it is always smart to be as alert as possible. I also used a hammer as well as clamps to hold it together to ensure my safety, because holding something with your hand while using a hammer is a dangerous idea.

I loved doing this project and I can definitely see myself repurposing again because I am a bit of a hoarder. I loved working with all the tools and I definitely feel like I learned some skills that I will be able to use later in life. In the end I learned a lot from this experience and I would like to give a few tips to anyone that wants to pursue this project:

• Always stay alert when you are working with power tools or anything sharp.
• Try to stand above your drill to get good pressure and to drill as straight as possible.
• Use clamps when you hammer in nails to avoid hitting your fingers.
• Take your time when drilling to avoid slipping and hurting yourself.
• Wear goggles when cutting with the table saw because pieces can fly off and poke you in the eye.

Overcoming the Wave

This project is for my art and history class called If These Walls Could Talk. The purpose of this project was to give life to the new school space by creating murals that will then be installed throughout the new space. I learned a ton about different mediums and a lot of different techniques that I definitely see myself using in the future. I am very proud of the way our mural turned out and I am happy that we could all work as a team to get this done. Please feel free to watch the video of the whole process and read my artist statement below!!





Name: BKJ
Title: Overcoming the wave
Measurements: 4- 88” by 112”
Media & Techniques: Acrylic paint, paper, wheat paste
A group of me and 4 of my classmates. planned out and produced a mural that will go into the new school space.

We used acrylic paint and spray paint on paper to create the imagery. Eventually, we will wheatpaste the painted panels of paper onto the wall in the new school space. Since our painting was mainly a wave we used a lot of different shades of blue such as dark blue to almost white because we had to differentiate the wave from the sky.We also wanted to differentiate the top or foam of the wave from the rest of the water which we did by using a very light blue. For the boat, we mostly used gold and brown spray paint so that it would really stand out from the blue of the water. This emphasizes the power and importance of GCE. I feel that it will transform the new space because it is right in the entryway so it is one of the first things you see when you walk it. Also I feel like it is a perfect spot since our mural is about GCE.

I was mainly painting and sketching and I did some spray painting along the way. My favorite role was spray painting the boat. I was good at that part because I am a graffiti artist and I am very experienced with spray paint. My least favorite role had to be sketching because we had to do the same sketch about 4 times on normal paper and 1 HUGE sketch and it was very repetitive and boring. If I could change 1 thing about the whole process I would make it possible to paint on the actual wall instead of paper. I feel like our mural looks good when it is not on the wall but I do not know what it is going to look like when it is wheat pasted up. I think it would look a lot better if we painted straight on the wall instead of what we did.

Final project- Italian

Check Mate!!!

This is the second project for my mat course called Rapid prototyping. The purpose of this project was to design a chess piece and make that chess piece using clay then out of cardboard using 123Dmake and 3-D print it. Everyone was given a partner and and chess piece that they had to work on. We then did a test run as a class and decided that we should make the theme of the entire piece based on the top piece, Ex. if I had the pawn i would make the entire piece using circles. Our group was given the bishop and I feel that we did a pretty good job on it. I learned a lot about how a 3-D printer and how the whole process can be a bit tedious and difficult. I am very proud of the piece my partner and I made because it is very simple but still cool. Learn more about my project in the slideshow below. ENJOY!